Monday 31 January 2011

The Wall

The Wall



Yes I have used this abstract before. Painted after a walk on an autumn day and seeing a crumbling wall covered in fallen leaves and moss. A large abstract on a large canvas that still takes up space in my study.

I keep looking at it and wondering what to do with it. It has a great deal of textured paint on it, so no at all easy to paint over.

I added it to today’s blog because I thought it fitted well with my story and my thinking. As a negative this could be seen as just an old crumbling wall, and an unsold canvas.

As a positive it can be seen as a thing of beauty and a canvas still looking for the right space to show its glory.

I hope a second look and a second thought inspires some more positive thinking.

This blog is linked to my other.  Another Brick in the Wall

Friday 28 January 2011

The Dance Of The Fireflies

The Dance Of The Fireflies


This original abstract was painted after two small events. As some of you know my computer crashed and I have spent much time rebuilding on a re-install of Windows 7. Most things were working except for my webcam and my sound card. The webcam I am told by the maker will never work on this operating system, it is like me it has seen better days. The sound card was something else. I so like to have some quiet music playing as I meditate and start my day. Before I head to my painting space I like to listen to mood music to get me going. How I was missing these things.

With a great deal of trial and error I have at last found a driver for my sound card that makes it work. The first music I played on it was, “The Dance of the Fireflies.”

This is the resulting abstract of that event and the friends who make my life such a joy. The little words they say the little acts of kindness and mindfulness make my heart soar of high.

Do I manage to convey that in this abstract? I hope so.

I hope you all have a great day and an even better weekend.

This blog is linked to my other.  The Source Of Happiness

Thursday 27 January 2011

Spring Will Come Again

Spring Will Come Again


So here at last is the abstract in blue or as close to blue as I am ever going to reach. Somebody commented that one of my latest abstracts was less full of joy than my others. There was a real chance that an abstract with any more blue than in yesterday’s seascape abstract would be deeper into the melancholy. My initial thoughts about blue kept going back to signing the blues. I do love jazz and I love singers of the blues. The trouble for me was that that was not at all the type of person who had asked me to paint a blue abstract.

I was out running yesterday morning. I ventured off the beaten track and ran along the edge of the beach on the grass. My foot almost landed on a last remaining blob of snow. As my foot hit the ground this is the painting that hit my head.

I hope it goes some measure towards depicting what I was thinking.

From sad moments often comes those high moments of creativity. I have not painted for ages and all of a sudden I have painted more than a few that seem to have been liked by others.

When we least expect it something springs to life in unexpected places.

I hope I have risen to the challenge. I have a feeling that blue might appear more often in my abstracts.

This blog is linked to my other.  I Am A Teacher

Wednesday 26 January 2011

I Am All At Sea

I Am All At Sea


As I told you before I was challenged by a friend to do an abstract in blue. I am still working on it but today’s abstract is a step along the way towards it. When I think blue I cannot stop thinking sea. Maybe because no matter where I run each day I am always close to the sea. I cannot leave my home without my eye looking towards the sea not far from where I live.

So this abstract, and it was painted in the manner of an abstract, not at all like how I would paint a seascape, has ended up looking just like a seascape.

The friend who set me this task has since painted an abstract and tells me that it was a mind captivating experience.

Yes it is indeed. I find abstract art so much more difficult to describe than the painting of a landscape or any other of the many things I try to paint. In all of those I look and paint what I see.

In the painting of an abstract it is not so much what I see, other than I see an internal picture in my mind, it is much more about all the feelings that are going through my mind and body. An abstract for me is a total commitment.

Because of this I usually know the moment I am finished painting whether I have managed to get on the canvas or paper what I was feeling.

So let me assure you, this may look like a seascape but it is for me an abstract and if you look at the normal seascapes I paint and the palette I use I hope you will agree with me.


This blog is linked to my other. Building Bridges

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Don’t Look Back

Don’t Look Back


I apologise to the friend who is indeed waiting for my abstract in blue, I promise it will happen, it is just a bit more challenging than my palette comfort zone. So here I am again back in that area using the same boring palette.

It is not very often that I am inspired in my art by the words of a holy book, though I do admit that such books do still play a part in my life. For some reason one such story was playing around in the back of my mind and would not leave. If I was to attempt an abstract in blue I had to get this story out of there to make space for thought.

So I laid out my usual colours and painted what it was I was feeling and seeing.

I have already been told that this is not like my usual bright and full of life abstracts, and I agree. The story was not that kind of story. The story I now remember was mentioned in a comment by Autumn Leaves about another abstract. So this is my interpretation of it, very different from the other one, The Sands of Time Move Ever Onwards.

I have looked at it, and looked again, and I have to say I have many doubts about it. The fact is, each time I look at it I see something else that fits the story, another aspect of the painting catches my attention. Painted with more white than I would normally use I hope it has some peaceful sections in it, I am aware the centre is very busy.

I share it with you.

This blog is linked to my other. We all Need Something

Monday 24 January 2011

Friends at Heart are Indeed a Blessing


I apologise that I have not been here for a bit and that I have no new art to share I have added a full explanation for this on my other blog. I do so hope to be back to full very soon. Thanks you all for your patience and concern.

I have been making an effort to paint. A friend gave me a real challenge to produce an abstract in blues. Blues are not a prominant colour on my palette unless I happen to be doing a seascape. I have therefore found this challenging indeed. My first three have pride of place in my rubbish bin. I am enjoying the challenge and hope soon I will get something I like.

But before this I have to get this computer back to life.

This blog is linked to my other. Blessing Where Least Expected

Thursday 20 January 2011

My Painting Seems To Be Like Buses.

Soaring Thoughts and Musical Moments

The Sands of Time Keep Ever Moving Onwards.

Have you ever heard the saying, “It is like a bus, you never see one for ages and then all of a sudden three come along?” It seems my painting has been a bit like that. I have painted the odd painting but have not been feeling at all creative. The paintings I was producing were, I am told of a fair standard, but they were not making me feel at all good in the production of them. I was going through the motions. I then painted one or two abstract paintings, my first real love if I am honest. Three sold in one week and yesterday another two have sold. So five of my last six paintings I have completed have sold, almost as soon as they were hung.

This cannot last. The strange thing about it is that most people when talking to me tell me they do not like abstract art, they prefer to know what it is they are seeing.

I feel I have another one or two abstract paintings floating about in the back of my head screaming to get out, when that stops I will return to painting the things people keep telling me they prefer.

In the Meantime I share with you again the last two that have sold.

This blog is Linked to my other. The man With No Ears

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Fractured World.

Version One

This abstract painting can be looked at in two ways. It can be seen and hung the way I have shown it on the top of this blog or it can be seen the way I have shown it below. I had an idea in my mind when I was painting this and try as hard as I could I failed to convery the exact thing I was trying to do. I wanted this painting to be two complete paintings and I suspect I ended up with nothing. I thought long and hard about what to do with it after I had completed it.


Version Two

I have put it in a mount but not in a frame, so you can see i am still unsure about where it will in the end finish up. I suppose the lesson I have learned from the painting is not to get greedy. Paint the one painting and leave it at that.

I show you it today with some reluctance, but not enough to stop me heading back down to my easel.

This blog is linked to my other. Who I Am Says More Than I Ever Say.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

The Conspirators Again


I have not produced any new works since my last post so I return to one that is on my mind at this point of time. If you read my other blog you will maybe understand why.



This painting was done after doing a sketch of two people sitting in together in what seemed to be a very conspiratorial way. I just could not resist painting it.


It was a painting that many people commented on but nobody seemed to want to purchase. My son said that he loved it as a painting but it was not the sort of work you would hang in your home.


I am glad to say he was proved wrong. The painting sold very recently, purchased by a young couple for their home. I hope they have much pleasure from it.


It was done using pastels and mounted.


I hope to have at least one new work tomorrow I have made a start of an abstract I hope to complete today.

This blog is linked to my other. A Foot Has No Nose

Monday 17 January 2011

The Sand Of Time Move Ever Onward.

The Sand Of Time Move Ever Onward

There is nothing worse than growing older. Actually that is not at all true, there are a great many people lying in the local graveyard who would happily change places with me. But as each year passes more and more I become aware of the passage of time. Forty years ago I attended the marriage of friends of my wife. The other day we were all gathered to celebrate their forty years of marriage. There walking across the dance floor was the beautiful bride, well in fact the daughter of the bride who looked almost the carbon copy of her mother.

It was thoughts like this that filled my head as I painted this acrylic abstract. I could have painted an hour glass with the sand dropping through it, and maybe that is another painting for another time. Instead I painted what you see in, “The Sands of Time Move Ever Onward.” I tried to capture the idea of sand and differing ages of people and stages of life disappearing into the distance and oblivion.

Painted on acrylic paper and mounted behind glass with a stressed gold frame I think it says what I intended but I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

This Blog is linked to my other.  The Invisible Man

Friday 14 January 2011

Four Sales

It has been a bit like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait and then all of a sudden three come at the same time. I had not sold any paintings for a while and then in a week I make four sales.

Some of the paintings I had almost given up on them ever selling .

Textured Sunflowers


Home From The Race

Lead Kindly Light


Friends At Heart.

Of course it all began by me giving one away.

Mothercare

So maybe that kindly act was the start of a good week.

This blog is linked to my other where you will see the story behind my putting all five of these paintings on this blog.   Shipwrecked Lost and Found



Thursday 13 January 2011

Friends At Heart


Friends At Heart


I do not think I need to explain to anybody who has read my other blog where the inspiration for this painting came from. We all have those friends and loved ones who hold a special place in our hearts. The trouble is that we do not often enough take the time to let them know.

Yesterday I wrote my blogs and then headed out to run 10K, or in old measurements 6.2 miles. I ran it in the fastest time I have for many years knocking three minutes off the time I had last run it at a pace I thought would be the best I would mange at my age.

So when I stood before my easel, I was feeling good. I had painted something the day before that I liked and I was back blogging. I began. I had an idea based on not saying often enough to those that mattered what I was feeling. Two abstract painting in quick succession found there way into the bin of no return.

This was the third attempt at expressing what it was I was feeling. I have already been told that it misses the mark but I give it to you.

You know something? I still have a nice feeling when I look at it.

So as you look at it please hear me say, you are my friends at heart.

This blog is linked to my other.  Look

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Soaring Thoughts and Musical Moments

Soaring Thoughts and Musical Moments.

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I had a burning urge to paint. Now I already have a number of canvas lying waiting to be repainted, the result of many failed attempts in the last few weeks if not months. I did not feel that painting an already used canvas with white was going to keep the feeling alive for long. Instead I took a block of acrylic paper and stuck it on my easel, and began to apply paint. I am aware that you are supposed to tear the sheet off and attach it to a firm surface but I did not even want to spend time doing that.

I applied the first of my colours, some bold dark blues and blacks across some of the central area. I stood back and looked for a moment then went to pour a coffee while I waited on that drying.

I poured out another four colours, some white, yellow and burnt sienna with a very small amount of red.

With fingers and knives and the odd touch with a brush I applied the other colours, allowing them to mix of the paper. I very quickly allowed this all to dry and then just added some small, very small, areas of pure unmixed colour.

There before me was exactly what I had seen in my minds eye. This was the first time I had ever painted an abstract of acrylic paper and not on a canvas. But this meant I could cut a mount and mount it and frame it behind glass as if it was a watercolour.

Because I have framed it behind glass I now cannot show you the completed painting, as framed, but I feel pleased with it. Those who know me will know that I do not say this too often, so I will say it again. I am fairly well pleased with this work. It has expressed the feelings and thoughts as I approached the paper with paint.

Let me share with you where these high soaring thoughts and musical moments came from. They were stirred up by all of you who have taken the time to contact me to say you were missing my blogs.

I really do hope the painting sings a song to you and you feel part of it, but I know that yesterday I painted something I feel some pleasure from.

This blog is linked to my other where I tell some more of the thoughts behind this art. Who Packs Your Parachute

Tuesday 11 January 2011

The Squirrel

Mothercare.

I had not painted for so long, and when I did I was never happy with anything I managed to complete. As most of you know I have a very dear old friend called Archie, of whom I have spoken before, and painted. Last week he came to me asking if I could help him out. One of his neighbours was having a special birthday, he wondered if I could make him a special birthday card with a squirrel. It seems his neighbour has a passion for the little creatures.

I looked back through my walking pictures to see if I had any inspiration. I found this picture of a squirrel among them. As I looked I noticed something I had not noticed when I took the picture. I do remember at the time wondering why it was not running from me, as they normally do. It was only now I noticed the small one tucked underneath her tail.

I did a pastel drawing of it about 16"x 12" and then photographed it and made it into a birthday card whith his neighbours name on it. I threw in the original pastel painting as an extra.

At least I was forced to get my pastels out. SO watch this space.

This blog is linked to my other. I Am Overwhelmed